Until recently we had no measure with which to compare the earth’s climate fluctuations through time. Today we do. Tree rings, lake sediment samples and the air bubbles in two-mile long ice core samples from Greenland and Antarctica show that the earth atmosphere’s carbon dioxide has increased to the highest level in recorded history from 270 to 378 parts per million since pre-industrial times. If the carbon dioxide continues to climb the earth will look like Venus. Its 96% carbon dioxide composition prevents heat from escaping and results in a surface temperature of 800ºF.
Greenland’s ice core samples show that the earth’s stable climate the past 10,000 years is an anomaly.
Four scientific centers NOAA, NASA, The World Meteorological Organization and the Hadley Climate Change Prediction Center all agree that the earth’s carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are up and that the global temperature rose by over 1°F the past century. Alaska, the Arctic and Antarctica’s average temperatures rose by 5°F the past 30 years. Eleven of the twelve warmest years on record occurred since 1995. As a result Antarctica’s ice shelves are fracturing, Siberia’s peat bogs and the Arctic’s permafrost are melting and glaciers are disappearing.
The oceans are warmer, coral reefs are bleaching and the sea ice has thinned by 30%.
These are documented facts.
Answering the question, “To what extent has humankind’s fossil fuel burning and deforestation contributed to global warming?” has economic and political consequences.
In 2001 2,500 scientists on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that as carbon dioxide rises so does the temperature and that human activity drove most of the warming in the past century.
Predicting the earth’s long-term climate is one of the greatest challenges today.
The multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign by the powerful oil and coal interests, (“The Carbon Club”) is not helping.
It makes sense not to overreact to global warming, but it also makes no sense to ignore it. A prudent policy that limits deforestation, stresses high mileage cars, energy efficient appliances, cheap solar energy and removing excess carbon from smokestacks is a WISE INSURANCE in uncertain times.